Tablets: Fourth Quarter Watershed

For ages, – or at least it seems that long – the pundits have loudly proclaimed that “The Desktop Is Dead”. As part of their – almost – incessant declamations, they have pointed to sales figures for laptops which have been higher but have hardly been a reason to issue a death notice for desktops. Now, all that is about to change, for in January – or thereabouts – they shalt cry: “The desktop and the laptop are dead”. The reason for the latest obituary will be the 4th quarter sales figures for tablets. For the 1st time, shipments of tablets are expected to overtake shipments of laptops.

The reasons for this surge are smaller tablets like the Nexus 7 and the iPad mini. It’s a matter of size and cost. The sweet spot seems to be around $199 for a 7″ form-factor tablet. The device becomes more affordable and portable at that point. To be sure, 10″ tablets are still going strong but 7 inches seems to be the Everyman device.

Of course, Apple does have to be a bit “different”. The iPad mini is larger than 7 inches and costs considerably more than $199 but Cupertino knows its customer base and what the traffic will bear.

One thing is certain, sales are booming no matter if it’s Apple, Google, Amazon or one of the number of other manufacturers. Fox example, Asus – which manufactures the Nexus 7 for Google – has indicated that they are selling about one million units per month and that is not anything to sneer at, folks.

At some point, market saturation will be reached and sales will therefore slow down as they did for desktops, but for now, it’s full steam ahead.